1. Field
The present invention relates generally to computer systems and consumer electronics and, more specifically, to integration of computer and television features.
2. Description
New forms of consumer electronics products are continually being developed and marketed. Many development efforts have been focused on the convergence of computer technology and home entertainment systems that center on the television (TV) set. Specifically, broadcast television recording and playback devices have been developed based on personal computer (PC) industry components. These devices are used to receive and record broadcast television signals. The received signals are stored in digital form on a conventional hard disk rather than on an analog video tape. The data may be rendered on a display (such as a television set or computer monitor) for a user at the same time that the data is being received and stored in the device. These devices are commercially available from companies such as Replay Networks, Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., and TiVo, Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., for example.
One feature of these devices is the ability to pause the display of the broadcast television program and then resume the display at a later point in time without missing any of the program. This xe2x80x9cbroadcast pausexe2x80x9d feature is made possible by the use of a random access storage device (e.g., a hard disk or writeable optical disk) that continuously records incoming broadcast television signals as they are being received and displayed. When the user pauses the real-time rendering of the program, the program data continues to be streamed to the storage device for later playback. When the user resumes display of the program, the previously recorded program data is obtained from the storage device and rendered on the display as the new incoming program data continues to be recorded by the device. Due to the linear nature of magnetic tape media, conventional video cassette recorders (VCRs) are unable to provide this feature.
Although useful for allowing a user to pause, restart, and archive broadcast TV content, these devices do not include the ability to obtain and navigate world wide web (WWW) content available over networks such as the Internet.
Another avenue for the convergence of computer technology and home entertainment systems is interactive television. One well-known model for interactive TV is that of a merged broadcast TV/Internet experience whereby WWW uniform resource locators (URLs) are simulcast with TV signals. This may be accomplished by inserting the URLs into the vertical blanking interval (VBI) of a broadcast TV signal or in a separate data channel of a digital TV video stream. When prompted by a message in the TV broadcast, the user may select one or more of the URLs to contact a web site over the Internet and perform a transaction or obtain additional information relating to the broadcast.
With current technology, retrieved web content is displayed in parallel to the broadcast picture either on a separate device (using a separate computer monitor or web browser appliance) or on the TV screen (using xe2x80x9cpicture-in-picturexe2x80x9d or some other windowing technology). One drawback of these conventional alternatives is that they force the user to either split his or her attention between the TV and the web browser or simply miss part of the ongoing TV program while he or she is examining the web content. In the case of a separate browser device, the user has to purchase such a device (incurring the high cost of a separate display in addition to the TV) and tolerate the clutter and distraction of two display devices in the same room. In the case of using the TV display, the user cannot continue to watch the complete TV program while he or she is also looking at web content. These disadvantages may deter the widespread adoption of such technologies and a method of overcoming these and other problems would be advantageous.
An embodiment of the present invention is a method of coordinating the display of an incoming signal stream on a display with web browsing. The method includes storing a uniform resource locator (URL) associated with the incoming signal stream being displayed, receiving a first signal to display web content associated with the URL, pausing display of the incoming signal stream while storing the incoming signal stream on a storage device, and obtaining and displaying the web content associated with the URL.
Other embodiments are described and claimed.